This Mortal Coil
by Eh-chan
Summary: A girl is made in the image of Man with the intent of surpassing them. A tragic accident and a strange turn of events find this girl piloting an Eva. She doesn't know who she is, but she has a sudden strange reaction to the crucified Lillith. Chap. 2 up!
1. Prelude

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
This Mortal Coil  


  
  
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is (c) GAINAX / Project Eva, TXV, NAS / Hideaki Anno  
All other characters are (c) Ayanami (Eh-chan)  
  
  
  
  


* * *

This is a really in-depth fanfiction, pretty much the first one I've ever done, so I'm reeeeally, reeeeeeeeally nervous about how it's going to turn out, and what the response is going to be. Plus, my made-up character is the main character, which makes it even harder to keep it a good story. Feedback will be super-crazy-awesome appreciated. Now read, you fruit! _  


* * *

CHAPTER ONE: MAEBURE/PRELUDE  
Will you live for others?   
  
  
  


Darkness... silence.  
  
And then...  
  
The sensation of feeling awashed her body. An intensely painful, deafening sound which could have been merely the flutter of a moth's wing reverberated in her ears. A slight burning sensation creeped through her eyes, and she squeezed her lids shut tighter. 'What's going on?' a voice, perhaps her own, screamed inside her head. She tried to cry out, but found she had no voice; it was lost instantly in the sea of thick liquid that surrounded her.   
  
Suddenly, she felt small tornadoes of suction near her feet and on her back slurp up the fluid in the chamber. She gasped for breath as the liquid receded from her face and let out a small, strangled cry. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she blinked repeatedly as excess liquid streamed into her eyes. She realized that she could now move her limbs, and with great effort she raised her right arm to her face and wiped her eyes. When she was able to focus in the glare of the bright lights above her, she made out three tall figures looming above her. One was a male, the other two female.   
  
"Vital signs normal," a strange voice boomed. She winced at the harsh noise, but kept her terrified gaze on the three people above her.   
  
"It's alright, Izumi." A woman's voice now, soft and soothing. In those few words she felt security, and her fears instantly subsided. Something about her voice... something that told her she was safe. "Can you hear me?" the same woman asked. Izumi tilted her head to the side in the direction the voice was coming from. A slender, pretty woman with long brown hair and a kind smile, wearing a crisp white lab coat, nodded gently at her.   
  
"I... " Izumi tried to speak, but her vocal cords, gone unused for quite awhile, refused to assist. Her words came out soft and raspy. Embarrassed, she began to cry in spite of herself, and nodded slightly. The woman smiled again and quickly jotted something down on the clipboard she held.   
  
"Good," she said, and once again Izumi was filled with a sense of comfort. She wished the woman would never stop talking to her, just so she could feel this way forever. The woman turned to an older man with grey hair and an identical lab coat. "Yes... you may proceed with the preliminary testing," she said, now sounding very stern and professional. The man left, and the woman turned back to Izumi. It was then that Izumi noticed she was naked. She began shivering, and wrapped her arms tightly around her chest.   
  
The woman noticed this. "Get me some blankets," she ordered to the other woman beside her, who nodded and left. A moment later she returned, and the two women began swaddling Izumi in the warm sheets. She was picked up out of the glass casing and moved to something resembling a hospital bed. It was hardly what one would call comfortable - a thin foam lining only a few inches thick, covered with cloth, and a small pillow - but Izumi accepted it gratefully, and relaxed. Her short brown hair, wet with the cold fluid of the chamber, stuck to her face in clumps of strands. She irritably pushed them away, but was suddenly fascinated by the hair's texture; a new feeling, yet strangely familiar.   
  
Izumi suddenly realized there were new feelings everywhere. The blankets, soft and thick; the metal barriers on the sides of the bed, cold and hard; her skin... soft as well, but many other feelings as well. She sensed that she knew these feelings... perhaps from a long time ago... These new textures and sensations overwhelmed Izumi, making her mind dizzy. Now a new sensation - fatigue. She yawned and tried unsuccessfully to keep her heavy lids from closing. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the woman again, who began scribbling furiously on her clipboard again. Glancing up, she noticed Izumi was looking at her, desperately fighting sleep. "You should rest, Izumi," she said. Now it was Izumi's turn to smile. A single word popped into her head right before the world around her peacefully melted away.  
  
'Mama... '  
  


* * *

  
  
"All right class: stand up, bow, sit down," Class Rep Hikari commanded, although her tone hinted at boredom. The class sat, and the professor turned to the chalkboard to begin his lesson.   
  
Shinji flopped down on his seat rather sloppily, but he didn't care; he was dead tired. It had been about a week since his last battle with an Angel, and ever since his mind had been bombarded with questions... questions about his father, about NERV, the Angels... Because of this, he hadn't gotten much sleep. He rested his head on his hands and stared at his computer screen, uninterested. Suddenly, a message popped up on the screen, and Shinji raised an eyebrow in interest. He glanced around the room looking for the author of the message, and instantly noticed a grinning, bespectacled boy pointing at his own screen looking back at him. Shinji sighed and forced a grin. 'I should've known,' he thought, amused.  
  
Hey Shinji-  
  
Can me and Toji come over after school today? You said that Misato was gonna be home early today, right?   
  
-Kensuke   
  
Shinji rolled his eyes and began to type back his response. 'Honestly,' he thought as he typed as quietly as humanly possible, so as not to get caught by the teacher, 'I think the only reason those two hang out with me is so they can go see Misato.' But he didn't object. They might get mad and not want to be friends with him anymore. And then what would he do?  
  
Sure. Can you meet me outside my locker then?   
  
-Shinji   
  
Shinji looked up to see Kensuke's reply. The boy nodded, and then quickly turned back to his computer. Shinji figured he was probably looking up something about aircrafts or anything that had to do with warfare. How did he end up hanging around with a crazed otaku and a hotheaded jock, anyway? Shinji often wondered this. He himself was quiet and introverted, the exact opposite of Kensuke and Toji, yet they liked him all the same. At least, they must like him, or else why would they want to be his friends?   
  
Shinji sighed. Was it normal to speculate about friendships when you were only 14? Setting his worries aside for the time being, he began to tinker with his computer, randomly typing and trying (albeit not very hard) to look like he was listening to the teacher.  
  
Lost in his thoughts, Shinji practically jumped out of his clothes as the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Calming down, he gathered his things and followed the wave of students pushing their way out of the room. It was odd, actually having someplace to go after school. Before he began living with Misato, he lived with his teacher, and never really had to hurry to get home. But now... he actually looked forward to leaving school.  
  


* * *

  
  
"I'm home," Shinji called. He slipped his shoes off and proceeded into the kitchen, with Toji and Kensuke following closely behind. Misato was sitting lazily on the couch, a beer in one hand, the TV remote in the other. Her hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, a rather tight, revealing tank top and short-shorts completing the ensemble. Alongside her sat PenPen, who also held a beer somewhat clumsily in his right flipper. Over the last few days, Shinji had become partially used to this odd spectacle on a regular basis.  
  
"Hi boys!" Misato called cheerfully, glancing up from the TV and smiling. "How was school?"  
  
"G-good," Toji and Kensuke stammered in unison. They bowed, discreetly trying to hide the fact that they were very blatently ogling Shinji's caretaker.  
  
"That's nice," the woman replied, turning back to the TV.  
  
"Um, do you want something to eat?" Shinji asked, and peered into the refrigerator. "I can make something or... " he trailed of, hoping at least one of the two would make some suggestions of their own.  
  
"Yeah! I'm starving," Toji said, jumping at the chance to get some food. "My lunches always suck, and I barely ate anything today."  
  
"Well... there's some cold soba, some una-zushi, a lot of ramen... and that's about it."  
  
"I'll take it all!" Toji said without hesitation, causing Shinji to grin somewhat piteously, but he nonetheless retrieved the cold leftovers and arranged them on a large plate. The boys settled in the middle of the living room, munching the food and watching whatever Misato happened to have on. The young woman was boredly channel-surfing, but suddenly she stopped as an interesting news flash caught her eye. A camera was fixated on a bird's-eye view of a large area in the middle of a desolate field spewing forth billowing clouds of smoke, and a ring of fire engines and firefighters quickly trying to put out a slowly dying fire.  
  
"Today around 1:52 PM this quiet, uninhabited field was the scene of a huge and disastrous explosion. Apparently a secret underground research facility experienced some sort of malfuntion which led to the entire base going up in flames," the reporter said. This despairing scene kept four pairs of eyes glued to the TV screen.  
  
"Further investigation shows that there were people inside at the time of the explosion, but it appears there are no survivors. We'll have more information on this as it become available."  
  
"Wow," Kensuke mused, "a secret lab explosion! That's pretty neat, huh?" Misato, Toji, and Shinji turned to look at him, astonished. "... what?" he demanded.  
  
"Geez, Kensuke, you're so insensitive," Toji muttered. This remark sparked a heated arguement the two boys over who was more insensitive, causing Misato to grin and return to her bedroom, and Shinji to slowly edge away from the bickering boys and watch them with a mix of interest, pity, and confusion.  
  
'They're so noisy... ' Shinji thought to himself.  
  


* * *

  
"Ikari." The harsh voice of Keel Lorenz echoed through the dark, empty space of the dimly lit conference room. The man staring directly back at him did not stir.  
  
"Everything is going exactly as planned," Gendo Ikari responded, no hint of emotion whatsoever in his voice.  
  
"And the Evangelion Unit-01?"  
  
"It sustained minor damage. Nothing that can't be quickly repaired."  
  
"Good. So I take it the new pilot was successful, and will continue to man Unit-01."  
  
"Indeed." The commander sat at the end of a long table along with the members of the organization SEELE. Each was seated uniformly around the table, while Keel Lorenz, the head of the whole organization, sat at the head of the table. Thin panels of colored light shone underneath the table where the men sat, as to make themselves somewhat visible.  
  
"Man will be able to rise from the ashes once more," a SEELE member proclaimed. "Once the Angels have been defeated, we will no longer live in pain and suffering."  
  
"Yes," another chimed in. "With the Dead Sea Scrolls, we can foretell mankind's future and bend it to our will." The commander listened patiently, then replied:  
  
"You sound so sure of yourselves." A pause.  
  
"It would be quite unwise of you to doubt our authority, Ikari," Lorenz remarked, leaning over slightly, his hands still folded on top of the illuminated table.  
  
"But of course," he replied coolly, and said nothing more. His face remained stonily devoid of feeling.  
  
"Good. You are dismissed, then." The pink light underneath Gendo's portion of the table vanished, and with it, the commander. 


	2. The Beginning

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
This Mortal Coil  


  
  
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is (c) GAINAX / Project Eva, TXV, NAS / Hideaki Anno  
All other characters are (c) Ayanami (Eh-chan)  
  
  
  
  


* * *

Yatta! The second chapter. The very first review I got for the last chapter really pushed me to continue (although I was planning on contining anyway... this just instigated me more :P). Now that I'm finally finished with my English research paper, I can put more time and effort into this. I'm really excited myself to see where the story will go. Sekunda chaputaa, GO!   


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CHAPTER TWO: HAJIME/THE BEGINNING  
All life is precious.  
  
  
  


Wake up...  
  
Wake up...  
  
Who's calling me?  
  
Wake up... you're still alive.  
  
Am I?   
  
Yes... wake up, Izumi.  
  
I'm still alive?!  
  
"I'm... alive!" Izumi awoke abruptly, the sound of her own voice startling her into a conscious state. She sat up slowly, cautiously. There were trees all around her, and the ground was soft and moist, covered in rotting leaves and dirt. She was in a small forest at the edge of a large field. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud. The last thing she remembered was... a woman... an explosion... loud noises... panic.   
  
"And darkness," she murmured aloud.   
  
Now realizing her surroundings, Izumi glanced around, taking in the unfamiliar sights. She noticed that she was still wrapped in the blankets she was given before, only now they reeked of smoke and there were sporadic holes burnt into them.   
  
Izumi groggily rose to her feet. "Where do I go now?" She wrapped the blankets tightly around her naked body in an attempt to ease her sudden fear and insecurity. The question echoed in her mind: Where do I go now? Where was there to go? What was she supposed to be doing? What was she? Who was she? She was Izumi. Yes. That's what the woman had called her. A name. A name which sounded familiar. Everything seemed so familiar, yet she couldn't grasp the memories that hid themselves within the recesses of her mind.   
  
Suddenly, a sharp pang of hunger broke her thoughts. Izumi clutched her stomach. "What's this feeling... ?" she moaned quietly. She leaned against a tree for support, and then slowly, cautiously, began to make her way out to the other side of the forest. Within about 20 minutes, Izumi could hear the alien sounds of civilization: cars whizzing by on the streets, crows of people... noises that were familiar, yet not, all at the same time. Izumi made her way out of the woods and found herself in a small city neighborhood. She squinted in the bright sunlight which reminded her of the light that glared down from the ceiling in the laboratory. All the houses on the street looked different, Izumi speculated. Some were small, some larger. Some had children playing out in the front of the house, some were quiet and seemed despairingly devoid of life. The sight of one house, however, spurred a feeling of happiness inside Izumi, and she walked towards it. It was small yet charming, with a plain lawn and a few flowers on one side of the house. The white drapes in the windows gave the house a summery feeling. Izumi dragged her bare feet up the steps, her strength fading again. She jammed her finger on the doorbell. A moment later the door opened and a woman around 50, stood in the doorway. It took a moment for the woman to process the image of the pitiful-looking girl standing in front of her.  
  
"Please... " Izumi trailed off as her legs suddenly gave out. She swayed uncertainly for a moment, then the world around her became dark as she fell to the ground.  


* * *

  
  
"Whaaat?!" Misato's eyes widened in complete shock as they darted across the paper, reading the message. "Unit-04 wasn't supposed to come for another MONTH!" She turned to Professor Fuyutsuki, who had given her the message, her face full of anticipation, as if he would say something that would make everything all right. The older man just smiled grimly.  
  
"That was the original plan," he said ruefully, "but the crew was able to finish the Eva ahead of schedule. Later on the plant just suddenly exploded. Nobody knows what happened, but the chamber holding the Eva survived and it was kept intact. Everything else within a 20-mile radius was completely destroyed."  
  
Misato sighed. "Just another enigma to add to the suspicion surrounding NERV," she said sarcastically, and suddenly she looked aged and weary. She closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "So," she said at length, almost fearing the reply, "when's it coming?"  
  
"Tomorrow," Fuyutsuki replied, wishing he could have given the woman better news. Misato's shoulders fell, and she sighed again.   
  
"Great. It's going to be hectic enough as it is getting Asuka and Unit-02 here from Germany, but now we have to have Unit-04 transported from the U.S. and select a candidate for its pilot." Misato turned to leave, but stopped when she felt a firm, comforting hand grip her shoulder. "Fuyutsuki," she said slowly and quietly, fearing she would break down from exhaustion.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"We... we're doing... the right thing, aren't we?"  
  
"One can only hope," he replied at length. Misato stood there a moment, taking comfort in the invisible concern the older man seemed to have for her. Another moment, and Fuyutsuki patted Misato's shoulder and let her leave. The hollow clack of the woman's pumps on the old tile floor grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared completely, and Fuyutsuki was left in complete silence, his only solace the quiet hum of the MAGI, working diligently as always. The professor stood there, looking up at the ceiling with a rueful, contemplative gaze. He sighed, and turned and left the room as well. "One can only hope... " he murmured quietly to himself.  
  


* * *

  
  
Rei Ayanami sat at the foot of her bed, fingering a pair of old and slightly bent eyeglasses. Although the young woman had no need for them, she held onto them as if they were made of the most precious gold in the world. They had come from Commander Ikari.   
  
Rei reached up and pushed away a few strands of her icy blue hair that had fallen in front of her good eye; although the heavy cast and bandages that had covered her left arm had been removed a few days ago, her eyepatch was still there, an inconvenient nuisance and a constant reminder of the painful battle she'd fought with the Angel. The girl relaxed a bit, reflecting on what she could remember about that incident. It was mostly a blur, but she did remember a boy... a boy who, oddly enough, resembled Commander Ikari. 'Was he the one who had defeated the Angel?' Rei thought, now that she was able to analyze the situation thoroughly. Nobody had really talked to her about what had happened while she was in the hospital, and even now that she was out of the hospital, everyone pretty much kept their distance from her, like they always did. It didn't bother Rei; she didn't see the point in conversing with others. Besides, what could she talk about with anybody? The only person who seemed to understand her was the commander. She smiled slightly at the thought of seeing him again, and gave the glasses a small, gentle squeeze. Standing up, Rei made her way over to her dresser that stood behind her bed and placed the glasses on top of it.   
  
Suddenly, an image flashed across her eyes. It was that boy again, the one who reminded her of Commander Ikari. It sparked a feeling inside of her. An unknown emotion... loving and comforting. "What... is this? What am I feeling?" Rei said quietly to herself. She placed her enfolded hands on her chest and closed her eyes, reaching into the back of her mind. This feeling she knew, but somehow she couldn't grasp what it meant or why she felt it.   
  
Rei let her shoulders fall, and put her questions in the back of her mind for now. Crossing back over to her bed, she fell back onto it and rested her head on her pillow. Gazing up at the ceiling, she traced the outline of a dark water spot with her eyes. It was an ugly yellow-brown color, just one of many spots that had manifested themselves in the ceiling. Though Rei would rather have them gone, they did little to really bother her, so she didn't waste energy complaining about them. The girl turned on her side so that she faced the window. Flecks of dirt and dust covered it, creating an ugly mask over the scenery it let in. Nonetheless, she stared at it, gazing at the deep blue sky.   
  
'I wonder... where it ends,' Rei thought to herself. She had often asked herself that when she looked out at the sky. 'Does something end just because you cannot see it anymore?' She sighed deeply and closed her eyes, suddenly tired. The world could be a confusing place sometimes, and the anesthetics she'd received from the hospital still lingered in her bloodstream. Rei idly fingered a small button on her shirt before falling asleep completely. Although she rarely ever dreamt, this time Rei saw faint, comforting images of a beautiful woman with short brown hair that looked strikingly similar to her own. The woman was smiling and holding a child, a boy. The two looked blissfully happy, and Rei smiled in her sleep as she looked upon the mother and child in her sleep.   
  
This was fine.  
  
  
  



End file.
